Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster review

Hello Kitty is the little white cat with a bow in her hair loved by teenage girls and confused Goths the world over.

Her image adorns over 22,000 products from stationery and clothing to cutlery and toilet seats - all available from a department store or 'alternative' shop near you.

But forget the Hello Kitty electric toothbrush, hair pin or gloves - you can now have the little cat's face on an electric guitar!

Sanrio, the people responsible for Hello Kitty and her furry gang, have teamed up with Fender to create a guitar and bass aimed at encouraging young girls to start playing rock 'n' roll. Lisa Loeb's a fan, and US girl band Rocket have a whole set of Hello Kitty axes in their arsenal.

In addition to the guitars there's a ton of accessories available, from battery-powered headphone amps to picks, straps and gig bags.

The guitar is available in a choice of pink and black with Hello Kitty's face as the scratchplate, while the bass comes in black only and is adorned with the face of Badtz-Maru, Hello Kitty's penguin mate who comes from the South Pole.

Overview

From the candy floss-coloured finish to the pink fret inlays, this guitar looks good enough to eat. However, this isn't just any old guitar with a pretty paint job.

It's a Fender, so you're getting a decent guitar for your buck that also meets the needs of beginners. Style and substance - excellent!

The Hello Kitty Stratocaster has an Agathis body with a maple neck featuring a big 1960s style headstock.

The back of the pink guitar has Kitty's name written in a stylish darker pink script, while the black version has her name printed in a Sex Pistols 'ransom note' design.

The guitar's simple hardware, consisting of a fixed bridge and decent sealed machineheads, is chrome and a set of Fender Super 250L strings (.009 to .042, perfect for inexperienced fingers) comes fitted as standard.

There's a single humbucking pickup located at the bridge of the guitar and wired to a single volume control. A simple set-up for beginners.

It's difficult to imagine playing anything other than bubblegum pop on a guitar this cute, and we found that open chords strummed clean on this guitar sounded great.

The big surprise came when we added some gain to our amp for our punk tunes. This little kitten loves to scratch!

We can't exactly see The Distiller's Brody Dalle slinging one of these guitars around, but we bet Courtney Love would have gone crazy for them when fronting the band Hole.

It's also worth mentioning the online support available courtesy of Fender (visit www.fenderhellokitty.com).

There are mini tutorials with advice on tuning, basic chords, powerchords, practising and instructions on reading and playing from tab that you can access, even if you don't buy the guitar.